K-frame alignment?

I’m with @67Dart273 on this, something has to be bent or out of whack. I’ve had the K out of several of my cars and have never had an issue with the K frame alignment. There’s obviously some tolerance there, but the tolerance on the suspension points of these cars is like a 1/4” so that much can be compensated for within the factory suspension adjustments.

Maybe the torsion bars lined up before, but maybe the K being in place was what was resisting the chassis being distorted. Once the K was removed the chassis distorted and now the K won’t pull it back into alignment despite being reinstalled. Or maybe the K is damaged and the chassis was holding it up until it was removed. Either way, it seems to me something is bent or broken. Have you checked the LCA pivot tubes? If the tube is broken free inside the K then the LCA might not be in the same place as before.

I’ve seen the Doug’s header thread, and having them installed on my Duster as well I don’t see how the chassis and K of your car is within spec. I’m not saying all headers are perfect, they aren’t and there are definitely some lemons out there. But adding the header fit, steering fit and torsion bar fit together it seems to me that the chassis is the culprit.
I don't know what the deal is. It had a 400 on elephant ears to begin with so before this, the K-frame didn't have to locate the motor and transmission, only the steering column and the torsion bars. I had the torsion bars out when it had the 400 in it (before I took the k-frame out) and they slid in and out like I expected. There are no wrinkles or signs of a crash that I have noticed.

After hours out there today trying this and that I'm getting convinced it's related to the LCA somehow. Whatever it is it's off enough that the bar kind of "thuds" when it stops going in. I had some success at one point, then I lost it and in the end that bar is really no different than it was when I started. It's not going to take long before I make sure everything is loose and go ahead and drive it in and call it good enough.